The Timeline

The Timeline is what makes actions possible, it's the place where all of the objects in the stage come together. With it you can add new Frames and Layers, as well as create animation. The Timeline is a powerful feature of Flash and learning how to use it properly is essential to work development in Flash.

The Library

The Library window is where you organize symbols, imported files, QuickTime movies, bitmap graphics, etc. Symbols are graphics, buttons or movie clips that can be added to Flash movies or animation. The library window also allows you to organize library items (symbols) in folders, and see how often such items are used in a movie.

There is no doubt that Flash is an extremely powerful and flexible tool that allows web builders to take their web sites to the next level by adding interactivity that would otherwise be too difficult to implement. The benefits of mastering this tool are many so start learning how to use this tool right away - it's what every web builder should do!

Back to the beginning

At present time (the time of this writing) Flash 4 is the version most widely used by web developers. Flash 5 is already available but it will be a while before it is as widely used as Flash 4, therefore future articles will be based on Flash 4. The version of Flash being used in articles will be identified by a "Flash version - - " note at the beginning of each article.